The squircle icons with the incomplete wireframe logos are very interesting, and there is a very real appeal to that look… but it doesn't cover all of the apps that come on the Samsung Galaxy S8 — it doesn't even cover all the Samsung apps on the Galaxy S8 — and it covers none of the apps that come from Google Play or Samsung Apps. That's a bummer, but never fear!
Icon packs are here, and just as icon pack developers have put out "tribute" packs for every previous Samsung flagship, they have taken the new Samsung icon style to its logical extension. These are the ones that do it best.
We'll begin with the hand-down winner among the S8 icon packs, which is aptly named S_Eight. This pack by Tha PHLASH applies the wire outline to each of the icons in the pack before shoving them all into squircles. Most of these icons are excellent — there are a few misses with the outlines chosen for busy icons, but for the most part the outlines fit the style well and are easy to recognize. The pack isn't huge, but the icon mask for unthemed icons zooms the icons in slightly, helping avoid some of the unsightly borders on other packs in this article.
This pack extends the wire outline to hundreds of icons, rather than just the Samsung apps, system apps and maybe some Google apps, as our runner ups do. S_Eight is the most expensive of the S8 tribute packs on Google Play at the moment, but you pay for quality, and Phlash delivers that in spades.
There are a few other S8 tribute packs on the market, and here's how they shake out:
- Aspire UX S8 ($0.99) applies the wire outline to most Samsung apps and some Google apps while giving third-party icons a more traditional look. Unthemed icons are inside white squircles, and even some Google apps like Play Movies and Google Home are unthemed.
- Delux UX S8 ($1.49) gives you the wireframe to Samsung apps, some popular Google apps, and some system apps, and the rest of the pack consists of traditional squircle icons, which are also used for the Google Play suite. As before, unthemed icons are in a white squircle mask. The icons here are a bit more consistent than Aspire, but it's still essentially to icon themes mish-mashed into one pack.
- Elegance UI (Free, $1.49) themes the most Google apps out of the lot, and does so consistently. The pack can get a little generic if you have multiple email apps or calendar apps, and there are fewer third-party apps themed at the moment, but the pack will hopefully expand in coming months.
You've got plenty of choices to get some consistency while keeping the Samsung style. It's important to note that as these are all Google Play icon packs, none of them will work in the TouchWiz launcher, but if you've already turned to your favorite third-party launcher anyway, these packs can help bring a bit of Samsung style back to your setup.
